WASHINGTON – (April 10, 2014) – Ishaq
Pitt, a guard on the UMES men’s basketball team, was named today the 2014 winner
of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year award.

Pitt was attending an annual symposium organized
by Diverse Issues In Higher Education magazine, where he received the honor in
a surprise announcement during an awards luncheon that recognized some of the
nation’s top student-athletes.

A Canadian by birth who grew up in
Brooklyn, N.Y., Pitt is one of the university’s most visible student-athletes.

In addition playing Division 1-level basketball, he is serving this year on the Student Government
Association's executive board and is president of the university’s chapter of the National Association of
Black Accountants.

He was recognized a week ago during the
61st annual Honors Convocation for being a dean’s list student during
the spring and fall semesters in 2013.

Pitt was selected a year ago to the Honor
Court by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, a program that
recognized 785 student-athletes from 285 colleges and universities for their
performance on the court and in the classroom. He was UMES’ Male
Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2013.

The university’s athletics department
nominated Pitt for the 2014 Ashe award, which was presented in conjunction with
a day-long program “dedicated to encouraging high school and college
student-athletes to set and achieve higher academic goals.”

Symposium participants heard from
current and former college and professional athletes, college athletic academic
advisors and other experienced experts in the field discuss the challenges of being
student-athletes. Pitt was recognized for being a success in both roles.

In a Jan. 24 profile published in The
(Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times, the newspaper reported his current grade point
average is 3.94. During the just-completed basketball season, the 6-3 junior averaged 5.3 points per game, 4.4
rebounds and 1.3 assists.

Pitt enrolled at UMES thinking he wanted
to earn a business degree, but switched majors after taking an accounting class
his freshman year.

“I always loved math and Soduku and
stuff like that,” he told The Times. “Balancing the accounts was like a puzzle
or a game and I like the way it was and the way it all came together.”

Pitt also told the newspaper he is
looking forward to an internship this summer with Deloitte, the internationally
renowned accounting and consulting firm, where he will work on auditing projects. After
earning his UMES degree, Pitt has his sights set on an MBA he hopes to earn by attending graduate school
at an Ivy League institution.